Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:26): Supplementary: I am sorry to the minister, I may have overloaded you there. Another question that I asked that you may be able to answer: have any Aboriginal remains been located on the site so far, along with Aboriginal artifacts?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:27): I thank the honourable member for his question. In relation to Aboriginal remains, I don't recall Aboriginal remains being discovered at the site, but I might say that wherever you dig anywhere in this country there is a chance you will find Aboriginal remains. Some estimates have the Kaurna nation up to 5,000 strong at any given time and, if you have generations at say 20 years over tens of thousands of years, you have millions of people who have lived in a certain part of this country buried in this country, so finding remains is something that does occur during projects.

It occurs in major infrastructure projects that both the private sector and the government have undertaken and there are strict protocols as to what happens if remains are found, then identified to be Aboriginal remains and how they are handled. I don't recall reports of remains being found during the construction of the current Women's and Children's Hospital, but I am happy to go away and check if that is the case.

In relation to artifacts being found, again I am happy to check. It won't be unusual; it will be even less unusual that artifacts will be found. Wherever settlement occurred, and settlement occurred right across this nation for millennia, you will find artifacts that are remnants of human habitation, whether they be middens from cooking, discarded cooking implements or tools that have been made. It would be difficult to walk over coastal or river areas anywhere in this country and not have Aboriginal artifacts at any given place, but I am happy to go away and check that as well.